


Passing Through the Rings of Saturn

by Iseafieria



Series: Four stars/ Shirhoes [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Curtis is slightly oblivious, Fluff with a dash of angst, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Multi, Polyamory, but they love him any way, let these dads be happy, poly proposals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 12:31:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17365877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iseafieria/pseuds/Iseafieria
Summary: Four rings and four stars, three proposals, one lovely relationship.





	Passing Through the Rings of Saturn

Takashi's proposal hadn't come as a surprise. They had talked about it before, and considering that they had been together for nearly six years it could only be a matter of time before one of them broke and popped the question.

He had taken Adam off base to a small ramen shop in town, one of their favorite places to go to get away from the prying eyes of the other Garrison officers. It wasn't fancy but had a homey atmosphere that could always put Takashi at ease. They were halfway through their meal when Shiro started dropping increasingly bigger hints, then he asked, very simply "Adam, Would you like to marry me?" No big fan fair, no dropping to one knee to show off an expensive ring, just a simple question.

To Takashi's surprise Adam didn't really react at first, just stared at him with ramen noodles dangling ridiculously from his mouth, chopsticks frozen in the air as if he'd forgotten to finish the task at hand. He then held up a finger, trying to tell Shiro to have patience without dropping the noodles. Adam then slurped up the noodles as fast as he could without choking. Little droplets of soup smattered his glasses. "Yes."

It was a simple answer to a simple question, form that point they considered themselves engaged, but at the time neither had enough money for engagement rings so they didn't bother with them. Of course, that decision led to confusion every now and then when the occasional waitress or officer started to flirt with one or the other, but it was always quickly resolved by a quick show of PDA between them.

~

Then Matthew Holt entered the equation. There was something about him, maybe it was the slight arrogance and overconfidence of the astrobiology major. Maybe it was that Devil may care grin whenever he messed with fellow cadets and higher ranking officers. Maybe it was the way he laughed at some of the absurd situations he got himself into. It really could have been anything but Shiro and Adam found themselves being pulled in and orbiting him like moons. In any case, it was about time they reevaluated their relationship's parameters.

The conversation had gone somewhere along the lines of:  
"So I like Matt."  
"Yeah, I like him too."  
"No, I like him in the 'I'd like to have a relationship with you' sense, not the 'you’re cool let's hang out' sense"  
"Ok, I was thinking the same thing."  
Where does that leave us?"  
"Well, we’re still engaged and I still love you"  
"Same here"  
"Do we want to open up our thing to include Matt?"  
"Sure, but we'll actually have to ask him about this."

Of course, it had to be a little harder to breach the subject with Matt. For one thing, their schedules never seemed to line up in a way that they could all talk about this like the informed adults that they supposedly were. The other large obstacle in their way was the whole 'fraternizing with subordinates' rule that Iverson could care less about, but Admiral Sanda enforced with every fiber of her being, but that was a bridge they would cross if they ever came across it.

Finally, the day came when they were all off duty and able to talk without the threat of being interrupted. Shiro had suggested that they go out to the cliffs and stargaze that night, and Matt had readily agreed so long as the stopped by a diner outside of town that he loved. There was only one problem with their plan, Adam and Shiro had personal hover bikes that they used when they were off duty, but Matt had no transport off base that wasn't his father or logged Garrison transport.

"So," Matt said leaning on a wall, "How am I going to go on the expedition of ours without any transportation."

Shiro and Adam shared a look.

"The bikes can take two people without much trouble," Adam paused and looked back to Matt, "How about you ride with Shiro to the dinner and we'll see what to do from there."

"Sounds fine by me." Matt sidled up to the other side of Shiro's bike, "Would you like me front or holding you from behind?"

Takashi's blush did not go unnoticed by his fiancé. "Behind will work better. You know so he can actually see where he's going."

When they arrived at the dinner matt marched up to Adam and bluntly stated "I'm riding with you for the rest of the night. Your fiancés taste in music is terrible."

Apparently, Shiro still had enough sense to look offended by Matt’s words, not that he hadn't been teased about his liking to older music before. "Let's get something to eat, shall we. The cafeteria was serving meatballs today, and there were no other options." All three shuddered at the memory of mass food poisoning from a bad batch of Garrison meatballs, no one in their right mind touched the damn things anymore.

The trio made their way into the dinner, and their meal was uneventful. Adam and Matt led the conversation, discussion old sci-fi movies, and shows.

"Alright, here's the big question, Star Wars or Star Trek?" Shiro leaned on the table watching Matt.

The younger smirked, "Neither, I'm more of a Space Balls and Orville kind of man."

Adam snorted as he caught Shiro's reaction. "Not everyone's as sophisticated in their show choice Takashi, you're just going to have to deal with it." Turning to Matt he added "He asked me the same thing on _our_ first date. I looked him dead in the eye and said Firefly and Galaxy Quest, and it took him an entire month to talk about TV with me again."

Matt laughed as he flagged down a waitress "We're going dutch right?"

"Don't worry about it, I can pay for everything," Shiro said before the young woman could break the tab.

As they left the dinner Matt bumped shoulders with Shiro, "You really didn't have to do that you know."

"Yeah, but I wanted to."

Matt bit at his lip as he put their pie in the storage compartment of Adams bike. He tried his damnedest to not look at Adam, as if he had something to say but had no way of making it sound coherent.

Adam leaned on forward on the handlebar as he watched, "You know if you keep biting that pretty lip of yours, you're going to draw blood." Hey if they were confessing to him tonight might as well lay the flirting on thick so that Matt might not freak out as much when they reached their destination.

Matt seemingly chocked on air at the comment. He stood up and straddled the bike and made an attempt to regain his composure. It was getting pretty clear that Matt had no Idea what to do when someone genuinely flirted back at him. Pressing closer he wrapped his arms around Adams' waist and muttered: “Just start the bike, Shiro’s already ahead of us.”

It was a 20-minute ride to the cliffs. It was one of Takashi and Adams favorite spots to go and stargaze, as it was far enough away from civilization that there was hardly any light pollution and you could actually see the full array of stars. In fact, the stars were so bright in this particular area that there were star shadows.

They sat there for nearly an hour talking about nothing in particular, and it was obvious that the longer they stalled the more nervous Shiro got.

Finally, Adam had had enough of their dancing around the actual reason for their outing. "Matt, Shiro and I have something to tell you, and we’d like you to hear us out completely before you make your decision."

Matt looked at the both of them, and the nodded, encouraging Adam to keep going.

"As you know Takashi and I are engaged and all. Well, we’ve kinda hit a bit of a snag on the way to domesticity." There was a raised eyebrow but no other reaction yet. "You see, um, I think I speak for both of us when I say that we both have..." He trailed off trying to piece together what to say that wouldn't scare the younger man off.

Shiro cut in before Adam thought himself into a corner, "We both really like you, and we wanted to ask if you'd be willing to, possibly, date the both of us."

Matt sat there quietly after the confession, staring at the overdone pie crust on the paper plate, for what seemed like an eternity.

Adam glanced over to Shiro then back to Matt. "You don't have to, we just thought it would be best if we told you bef-"

He was cut off by Matt pressing a kiss to his lips. They pulled away from each other slowly and just stared at one another in awe.

"So I'll take that as a yes then?" Shiro asked.

Matt turned to Shiro, looking him over, "On one condition, I get to call you 'Takashi' too."

Takashi laughed at that. “Of course”

~

A year after Matt joined their circle, Shiro approached Adam with a question.

“Do you think we should Propose to Matt?”

Adam looked up from the data-pad he had been studying, logistics forgotten. “Propose to Matt, Aren’t you cutting things a bit close right now? We’re two months away from launch, and we should be focusing on prep right now.”

“I know, but also I know that you wouldn’t do anything about this until its too late, and personally I don’t want to leave you alone.” Shiro knelt and took the data-pad from Adams loose grip and set it on the coffee table. “You shouldn’t be left alone. Asking Matt to marry us would ensure that. Then we could tie the knot before the launch, have at least a month of domestic bliss before we leave.”

That hopeful look on Shiro's face made Adams' stomach churn with love and fear of the inevitable. He took a deep breath to steady his voice, “We’ll ask him, but no courthouses until we return.”

“But-“

“ _No_ Takashi.” Adam snapped, “I will not be left a widower before our honeymoon! Do you understand me? I can’t handle that, and I know you wouldn’t put _Matt_ through that either.” He sat up and placed his hands on either side of his fiancé's face and stared him down. “ _Please Takashi_ , don’t put us through that.” His voice cracked.

Takashi closed his eyes and hummed when he looked back and met Adams eyes they were filled with something a bit more poignant than your average sadness. A small smile graced his face, “Wouldn’t dream of it.” Leaning up he kissed Adams forehead, breathing in the scent of his shampoo. They stayed like that, holding each other close, for who knows how long before Takashi spoke up again, “Matt’ll be here soon, and we promised we’d feed him something.” Shiro stood holding out a hand for Adam to take.

“You had better not be in the kitchen, the last time you tried cooking the base fire brigade had to make sure that we were ok.” Adam laughed, small and breathy. The anguish still lingered but it wasn’t quite as heavy now. “Go on, shoo. Be gone from here.” He shoved Takashi in the direction of the bedroom.

~

Matt rolled off of Adam and collapsed on the bed, staring up at the barren ceiling, a vast difference from his regular dorm room, in which he had put up glowing stars, attempting to map the cosmos on the walls, much to his roommate's annoyance. “G-d, how the hell are we going to do this in the Kronos without making it awkward with my dad?”

Shiro chuckled and stood to grab something to clean themselves up with, “The easiest way to do that is not to do anything risqué while on the mission.”

“Oh hell no, there is no way in this galaxy that I’m going celibate for two years just because my dad’s on the same ship as me. Especially when you two are right there.” Matt seemed to scoff at the very notion of it.

Adam dropped a kiss on a freckled shoulder, “Kronos is a large ship, we should be fine. Besides your dad already knows our situation so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

Shiro tossed a warm, damp washcloth to Adam and made his way back from the bathroom. “And, you know, Kronos is a big ship. And the walls aren’t exactly thin either.” He joined them back on the bed and started tracing the undiscovered constellations smattered across Matts back.

Matt leaned back into the touches, chasing the sensation, relaxing into Takashi’s arms.

Adam tossed the washcloth in the general direction of the hamper, not really caring where it landed. He pulled the blankets up over the three of them and pressed close to his boyfriend and fiancé.

Takashi nuzzled Matts' neck and muttered something unintelligible.

“Sorry, Starshine didn’t quite catch that.” Matt’s affinity for nicknames was something Adam could never get tired of.

Takashi sighed and raised his voice only slightly, but moved enough away from Matt’s skin so he would be understood. “Matthew, would you marry us?”

Adam couldn’t decide if this was better or worse than the Ramen shop.

“Sure why not.” He shifted so he could properly kiss Shiro, “Love Ya ‘Kashi,”

It had been such a casual answer, then again Matt was a casual man most of the time, when he wasn’t being an overdramatic little shit, so it fit. Adam pecked his nose, “We love you too, Starlord. Now, how about some sleep.”

“One thing though,” the redhead yawned, “We need rings.”

~

They decided on matching rings of different metals. They were very simple par Adams suggestion so that they wouldn’t cause any trouble while on the mission. Matts only request was that would be three gems embedded in the bands, forming Orion’s belt, something about being a perfect conduit. Shiro was the one to actually pick them out, one gold one silver and one black steel, and the jeweler told him they’d be ready by the weekend.

Matt was the one to pick them up. But instead of bringing them directly to the others, he brought them home so that he could work on their gift. “’Katie, meet me in my room in five with the programming equipment!”

The siblings stayed up most of the night working on the rings and the surprise.

~

Matt was positively giddy when he walked into Shiro and Adams apartment. “Guys, couch now. I’ve got something to show you!” He ran his thumb over the lid of the ring box, leg jittering once he took a seat on the coffee table much to Shiro’s disdain. Matt then presented the open box with a flourish, "Voila!"

Adam smiled, reached out and took the black ring from its place. He inspected it for a moment as Takashi took the remaining silver ring and place it on his finger. "They're perfect, but, why the fanfare?"

Matt Grinned in that shit eating way that he had when he'd rigged up Keith's bike to go even faster. "I worked on them this weekend with Katie and there's a little surprise in each one." He worked off the gold band on his own finger to show them. "You see this groove here, well you place your nail or, like, a glasses screwdriver in there. And that reveals these two small buttons. You press the red one and," He pressed the button and placed the gold ring on the table, above the ring materialized a holoscreen with a picture of the three of them on the night they'd gotten together. "TA-DA!"

They stared at the image in awe for a moment. "How the hell'd you pull this off?" Shiro asked.

"White sapphires are perfect places to store code and with a little Help from Katie I figured out how to get the projector bit to work." He watched as his Fiancés stared at their own rings trying to comprehend how so much tech could possibly fit in such a small thing. "Oh, and there's one more thing besides the photo and video album." Matt picked up his ring and pressed the small blue button and the soft piano from the beginning of one of Matts favorite songs started to play from what seemed to be the gold band in his palm. "The holoprojector was the easy part, figuring out how to make a speaker small enough but with high-quality sound was a pain in our asses." Matt slid the ring back on and the music and projection were cut. "So what do you think," He'd gone from giddy too nervous as he watched the other two seated across from him. "I thought that it would be something nice, you know if we're ever on different missions, we’d still have something of each other with us-"

Takashi cut off Mats rambling with a soft kiss. "They're amazing, Matt. Thank you," he said as he pulled back.

Matt's blush refused to leave for the rest of the day.

~

Getting abducted by aliens while on one of Pluto’s moons was not a part of the Kerberos mission plan. Getting separated and being tortured certainly wasn't part of it either. But it had happened, and there was nothing that any of them could do about it. Shiro sacrificed himself to save the loves of his life. They had mourned each other, accepting the massive possibility that they might never see each other again. Then a miracle happened. Katie found Matt and brought him back to the castle of Lions, He met the paladins of Voltron. He was dragged through the castle by his sister, prosthetic legs heavy with exhaustion, but he kept going because she told him there was a surprise waiting for him on the bridge.

The first thing he did when he saw Shiro was slap him hard across the face, the gold band around his left ring finger leaving an extra sting. "That's for being a self-sacrificing asshole." He then pulled Shiro in for a long hard kiss, "And that is for not being dead."

A month later they came across a ship of rebel bounty hunters, and one of the crew was way too familiar to them. His hair was longer and greyed in areas, he was missing an arm and a leg and had burn marks over the left side of his face, but even under all that and four years of being separated he was unmistakable along with the glint of black steel hanging from his dog tags.

Matt chocked on a sob when he saw Adam, the sheer elation of finding their missing third was almost too much for him.

The three of them were not seen for three days afterward.

Then barely a year after finding each other The Paladins and the castle of Lions disappeared. Matt and Adam had received a distress signal from earth, News of Sendak's approaching invasion spurred them on to get to earth, try and prepare them for the oncoming storm.

Adam arrived first before the invasion. He was promoted, albeit grudgingly, to the rank of commander and took point on training the MFE piolets. He actually requested that he fly with them, but that they Keep Griffin as the leader of the team.

Matt landed just after the invasion calmed down, sneaking in on a sentry dropship. It was two years before the paladins arrived. There were tears and hugs and kisses, as relief flooded the base. From there on things started moving very fast from there.

~

They were a month into the Atlases deployment when Matt brought it up, "You know, Curtis is really hot."

Adam didn't even bother looking up from the book in his lap, "Who?"

"Curtis Lopez, the lead communications Officer on the bridge. He's always staring at Kashi's ass."

"Excuse you, Lieutenant Lopez does not stare at my ass!" Takashi called from the bathroom.

"Yeah tell that to Veronica," Matt said as he tossed his shirt down the laundry chute.

"Well, if you actually paid attention you'd know that he stares at the both of you. And yes, Takashi, He's really into you, Why else would he follow you to that arm wrestling competition." Adam put his book on the bedside table and took off his glasses as he spoke. "You really should just ask him out."

Takashi walked out of the bathroom, trying not to trip as he made his way to the bed while he focused on finding the hidden switch to turn off his night light of a shoulder. "There's only one problem, he wouldn't accept any offer even if I made It." he shook his left hand so the silver ring caught the artificial light from the overhead.

Matt sidled up behind Shiro and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I highly doubt that'll be much of a deterrent if we simply explain to him what our situation is."

Shiro turned around with a huff, "Don't you think four might be a little crowded?"

"I don't know, maybe we should ask my sister. Or even better your shadow." Matt hummed as he booped his lover's nose.

"Matt, don't push him. If he doesn't want to he doesn't have to." Adams tone was closer to the one he used when the MEFs were being unruly but there was a hint of mirth in his voice.

"Well," Shiro said, sitting on the bed and pulled Matt down with him so the younger was straddling his hips, "I never said I didn't want to." He pressed and gentle kiss to Matts jaw, "I just want to make sure that you're both ok with it." with every word there was another kiss, whether it be on a freckle or one of the hard-earned scars that littered his lover's chest.

Adam pressed up behind them, resting his head thoughtfully on Takashi's shoulder. "I'm fine with it."

The redhead of the group laughed as Shiro placed a kiss to a, particularly ticklish spot. " _A-Okay_ here. Cause if you don't ask that tall, dark, and handsome man out I would."

They all laughed at that.

"Alright, you two. I don't know about you, but I have a shift in eight hours and I'd actually like to get some semblance of sleep." and with that Adam laid down and turned off the overhead light leaving the rest to his lovers.

~

Curtis was unaware that he was dating the other three for five months. He had just assumed they just wanted to hang out, that it was just platonic and that going having dinner with them and being invited to the captains quarters for movie nights was just a show of friendship. That line of thought didn't stop the feelings swelling in his chest every time one of them smiled at him or leaned over him to help on the bridge.

_You’re just going to have to tell them so you don't get yourself hurt. Tonight is as good as any._

They were watching The Martian, Adam laying on the plush officer's couch peg leg dangle carelessly over the edge. Mat was sprawled on top making smartass comments about situations that he had in common with the Watney. Captain Sirogane as on the other side of the couch working through some sort of political document Princess Allura had passed on to him. Curtis had settled on the pillows they had thrown on the floor before dinner, Matts fingers running through his hair.

"Hey, um I've got something to tell you guys," Curtis said, unsure as to how to go about telling them.

Shiro paused the movie "What is it, Curtis?"

"Right," he faltered, "We've been hanging out for a few months now, so I just want to be transparent with you all," another pause as he chose his next words as carefully as he could. "I've developed feelings towards you all, I know that this is all platonic, but I can't help it. You're all amazing and Adam I know that you and Shiro are engaged and all it's just." he stopped at the looks in their faces. All of them seemed confused by his confession and seeing it derailed Curtis's train of thought.

Pushing himself up on his elbows, Matt was the first to break the silence, "Wait a sec, you think that this all is just us all being buddies?" He laughed, hardy and nearly disbelieving. "I think someone forgot to pass on the memo." That earned him a light smack to the back of the head from Adam.

"Curtis, we’ve all been dating since you joined us that first movie night." Adams' voice was gentle as if he'd spook Curtis with the apparently obvious information.

Shiro put down his datapad and placed a hand on Curtis's shoulder, "We thought you knew."

"Yeah, well at least now I do."

"Good," Mat said as he settled back down on Adams' chest, "Can we finish the movie now, he's about to blow up the hab."

~

It was two more years before peace was restored to the universe and they finally considered the actual possibility of getting married. But there was one last piece to put in place before they moved forward on that track.

Matt started by taking the three rings back to the jewelers. Adams needed resizing anyways, what with his new left arm, and He wanted to add another sapphire to the setting. There was also a need for a fourth ring, copper with the same requirements of the others. As well and the little surprise for Curtis to enjoy when they were apart.

While Matt focused on the rings, Adam worked on putting together a proposal video with some help from Kinkade for some transition editing. As a finishing touch, he put the instrumental of their song in the background.

Takashi’s job mainly consisted of diverting Curtis’s attention from the preparations.

Within two weeks they were ready to put the plan into action.

They asked him to meet them in their apartment and they would go to a nice place off base for dinner, maybe even a late movie.

~

When Curtis arrived the apartment was seemingly empty. Must be finishing up something for the higher-ups. He sat down on the couch staring at the TV screen which had a menu pulled up with his name as the only option. Picking up the remote he selected the tab. Music started to play along with a short slide show, Pictures of them on various dates missions and hangouts. They had even pulled some pictures of the Monsters and Mana sessions that he was dragged into.

Then Shiro started to talk:

“Two and a half years, wow, Time really does fly when you’re in love.”

“Well shit, It’s kinda hard to take myself seriously when the first thing I thought when I saw you was ‘Damn, he can take a bite out of me any time.’” Matt’s laughter filled the room.

Adam started speaking, “Curt, you are the first person to truly ground us. I especially grateful, I don’t think I could have handled them on my own.”

“Curtis, we want you to open that little box on the coffee table,” Shiro again.

He did as the video said and found a copper ring with four gems inlaid in the band, elegant and simple

Now there was a video of Matts' face “I guess what this all is leading to is, Curtis would,” Matt tuned into Adam “you do us the pleasure,” Adam melted into Shiro, “Of becoming our Husband?”

The video ended and the sound of the bedroom door sliding open alerted him to his boyfriends’ presence. Curtis stood and faced them with tears of joy clinging to his lashes and mouthed the only word he could think of, Yes.

They looked hopeful but still a little unsure so Curtis decided that showing not telling was the best option. Lifting his hand he let the light catch on the warm copper of the ring. He had never been hugged by an actual polar bear but the group hug he got at that one motion was probably the closest thing he’d get.

That day would come to be one of the brightest of their lives, second only to their wedding.


End file.
